Blue Hearts
by valkurion-universe
Summary: After a troublesome nuclear winter, Piper decides to take time out to plan something romantic for herself and lover Blue, but the lengths she'll go to in order to show her love for the one-woman army takes her all over Sanctuary and even to Preston in order to get what she needs for a gorgeous night...


**Blue Hearts**

"You want me to do what?" Preston asked Piper as she stepped away from the now locked door of his little outhouse on the edges of Sanctuary. Months of fortifying the houses into five or six-person dormitories had earned the Minuteman a small domicile to himself. He built and maintained it all by himself and kept a constant ear to the radio beacon tuned into Radio Freedom.

Piper's intrusion was swift and she had caught him in middle of dozing, which shook his bones and made him shiver with fright. He'd calmed down by the time she had asked him what she came to, but still, he was confused as to why.

"Need, Preston, not want, need. I need you to get Carla, Jun, ADA and Mama Murphy away from the cul-de-sac tonight. Oh and I… need to borrow your couch." She added at the end of the explanation, sliding down to her knees before making her request yet again to him. This was the third time and already Piper's fingers were tensing with frustration.

Blue would be back from the supply run with Dogmeat and Cait any minute and everything else was in order. Piper had pulled in all the favours with her fellow settlers to make the arrangements for tonight, and now all she needed was Preston, his pull with the people and his gorgeous and remarkably spotless (or so) red sofa, plush even after two-hundred years of sitting in the corner of a house far away in the Commonwealth. Garvey had tugged it back to Sanctuary with a small team of Minutemen looking for some comforts to make their small outhouses a little more special. Most of the others were carrying cooking equipment, bedding pieces or a piece of furniture. Preston had to be different.

"Why do you need to borrow my sofa? Do you know what I went through to lug that thing all the way back here from Fort Hagen?" He inquired, standing and walking into the small kitchen of his outhouse. There were some stale noodles on the countertop of worn wood and feeble fletching.

"Yes… Preston. We all know what you went through to get that couch back from Fort Hagen. You've been telling everyone practically every chance you get," Piper bit back, sassy and suave, all the reasons Blue adored her so much.

Garvey dipped his chopsticks in some clean water and lined his gums in alcohol - all measures he took before every meal to keep clear of infection. It worked better than the steps the other settlers took, and Sanctuary was getting over both a terrible flu season from the onslaught of the winter and a bout of typhoid. Piper and Preston had both avoided typhoid but Piper had come down heavily with the flu.

While rubbing thimble after thimble of alcohol around his gums and the back of his mouth, he tried to speak to her. "Like who?" Was what Piper made out from his garbled exclamation.

The reporter leaned against the rickety wall and folded her arms. "Let's see… The traders from Goodneighbor, the new settlers from Abernathy, and County Cross, from Diamond City too… Then the Raider prisoners we took that stormed the bridge, those three robotics experts… Me, Blue, Cait, Curie, all the robots, Trashcan Carla… twice. And that group of entrepreneurs from the Mojave," she riddled off, counting on each finger as she went, even smiling when he dipped his head back into the living room to shoot her a pained and annoyed glance.

Preston always forgot Piper had an infallibly photographic memory at the best of times. It was her substitute for not having a notepad to jot details of stories down.

"Okay, I can see-"

"Oh and Dogmeat… You told Dogmeat, Preston. He's a dog… And you told him how you got the couch. What is wrong with you?"

"It's a good story! Come on, it's a good story. Right?"

Piper didn't need to cast her mind back not even a week to recall a tale on her travels with her girlfriend and the rest of the team into the Commonwealth chasing both the recesses of The Institute and the now warlike Brotherhood of Steel across the wasteland in order to find a better story to shove in his face than the tale of the couch. Every day and night with her lover presented gorgeous new challenges to test their mental and physical strength. Piper also helped Curie at times as Sanctuary's counsellor and even that hailed emotional accounts that she would sometimes tell to friends back in Diamond City. Always adhering to what Blue called 'Patient Confidentiality'.

She was shaking her head at Preston a second later, giving him a condescending look with flat mouth and pursed lips.

"It's certainly a… a 'Preston Garvey Story'" She told him, laughing internally.

He eyed her, knowing what a 'Preston Garvey Story' meant.

"Remind me again why I'm supposed to be clearing the cul-de-sac again? Oh, and giving you my prized sofa?" He asked of her, going back to his noodles now. With his mouth lined with alcohol enough, he deemed the stale and barely heated ramen safe enough to eat, and he was needing it. Rations in Sanctuary were still in effect after the winter and it was slowly becoming warm enough to chance crops once again.

Danse was overseeing the farms all around the middle of the town when he wasn't also coordinating the storefronts with one of the Automatrons that Blue had jury-rigged for enhanced persuasion and sales. The claiming of that particular subroutine from RobCo was one of those adventures Piper loved.

Now Piper spurred, her mental clock sensing time ticking against her and she needed everything to be ready before Blue came back so she could distract the gorgeous woman. "Because I'm… planning something for tonight and I need the best couch around." She told Preston as he brought his noodles to his chair and turned up the volume of his wireless a little. The splendour of old coming from Radio Freedom made him feel more alive. He was shaking off his grogginess fully as he chugged down the shady food.

Suddenly, Preston sensed the power he had in this exchange and reading some of the magazines Blue had found in the Commonwealth had turned his terrible method of leaning on someone into a knack for persuasion. He was slowly becoming a silver-tongued devil, so he thought.

"What're you planning? A performance of Beethoven's 5th? Star Spangled Banner? Or is it something Shakespearean?" Once again he inquired, making fun of her a little as he knew exactly what she was planning and why.

Spring meant the skies were generally clearer and Blue had been toying with some firework launchers as of late. In her spare time, Piper had been making advances at ADA to help her with them, as well as scrounging kitchens all over the Commonwealth for supplies to build shooters of different colours. In Preston's mind no doubt she had managed to wrangle the Automatrons to create a display. Hence why she needed the cul-de-sac cleared, for safety, and she would want the couch for one reason.

Kissing Blue on it. Maybe more.

"You and I both have no idea what those things are so let's just cut to the chase, Garvey… What do you want from me in order for me to have that couch for the night? Lay 'em down, cards on the damn table."

"... I don't have a table, Piper…"

"You know what I mean dammit! What d'ya want Preston?" She bellowed, getting a little impatient with him and how much time he was wasting beating around the bush with her. She wanted the couch and she wanted his assurance now so she could be ready to distract her two-hundred-year-old flame when she came back with Dogmeat.

Preston mulled over the situation, about what he wanted from Piper, or what she could even give him. There wasn't much she had, apart from her writing skills. And therein lay what he could have from her, for a time. The Minutemen needed every resource they could scrounge and while Preston hadn't thought of using Piper's knack for words before, he was suddenly contemplating a snuff piece of the organisation from her in exchange for the couch. It seemed sound and logical.

"Would you be willing to write a small piece about the Minutemen and The Castle in the next issue of your paper?" Preston inquired.

"What?" Piper exclaimed, incredulous to his request.

"Nothing massive, nothing that would win a prize, just something… You know, humanizing. Something to inspire the settlements around the Commonwealth," he elaborated, finishing up the noodles rather swiftly and placing the bowl on the floor. Again, he didn't have a table.

Piper was rather taken aback. Not many of those around Sanctuary or the Commonwealth at all even remembered she had skills as a writer. The Synthetic Truth had gone down more successfully after the destruction of the C.I.T but after that, she had found topics to write about rather scarce. There had been a run of papers and pamphlets she'd written about the dangers of the Brotherhood of Steel, the work of The Railroad and 'How To Know If You're A Synth', collaborated with Desdemona of that organisation, but nothing else had gripped her, and Piper hadn't taken to her pencil or a typewriter in months. Yet, Preston remembered. And Piper was touched now.

She stammered, "I mean… I guess? Are you sure you'd want me to do it?" She checked with Preston.

"Of course! Your work is pretty damn good. And you're pretty much the only qualified and meaningful journalist left in the Commonwealth. The Minutemen would be honoured if you shared our stories for us. You can take the sofa whenever you want for that." He agreed, smiling a warm and gentlemanly smile for her. Preston offered Piper his hand in ways of a deal.

"Preston Garvey, you have yourself a deal."

* * *

Blue had arrived back at Sanctuary, not an hour after Piper made the deal with Preston, and led Dogmeat to the garage space with the Power Armour Frame and the workbench. Where all the tool stations were as well as the numerous lockers where all the weapons, copious weapons were stashed. So many times Piper had told Blue she had a hoarding problem and near enough every time the suave lover would either dodge the question, laugh a little to make Piper blush, or simply make a joke about it and smooch the Diamond City reporter. Piper could hardly complain after that, in addition, the weapons were for all of Sanctuary for defence, not just for adventuring, dungeoning and spelunking in the Commonwealth.

They'd snuggled up inside of Blue's new house. She'd devoted her old, crumbling shack to the settlers, unable to stand living inside of it any longer, and she had made that decision after coming first out of Vault 111. Codsworth still maintained it, but Blue could hardly look at it. However, memories of that old life, the one that died two-hundred years ago when the atom bombs fell, were almost all expunged. Blue told Piper she never needed to remember them, not the house, not her son, not anything. All was gone, and she had a new life. In every way but the literal, Blue was reborn inside the Vault, and Piper was what awakened her to that fact - meeting her in Diamond City so long ago and falling head over heels for her after the mission to obliterate The Institute.

"Ya know… I don't think I ever want to imagine what life would have been like if those damn bombs didn't fall." Blue broke the blissful silence saying. She snuggled deeper into Piper's cuddle, taking on the role of the small spoon for once. Usually, the one woman killing machine in the blue vault jumpsuit was the bigger spoon, but tonight she wanted to feel the warmth of her Diamond City lover.

The heat radiating from Piper was sublime, and the perfect temperature after wading through the wasteland in her jumpsuit and overalls all day. Dogmeat was contently curled up by the makeshift fireplace, with a raggedy and badly beaten teddy bear in his paws. He loved the thing and loved to rip it to shreds any chance he could get. Blue was handy with needles and there was still some left around the world. Many more teddy bears had been cannibalised into the thread for Dogmeat's personal sleeping companion. Blue felt so at peace she could do with never moving, and Piper softly kissed her lover's forehead with mellow lips.

"What d'ya mean, Blue? Something on your mind?" Piper asked, brushing the ash black hair away from her lover's face and behind her splendid little ear. She let out a silent, single chuckle upon seeing the cartilage and leaned in to give it a little nibble around the lobe.

Blue was laughing a little already and she pressed her weight to the side, toppling over Piper as they lay on the spread pile of hewn cushions and overstuffed mattresses. Leftover Razorgrain was drawn and threaded into the mattresses of every settler when possible to make the beddings much comfier for them. Piper and Blue even had a long and hand-sewn blanket over them. Mama Murphy had made it in exchange for some caps.

The older woman rolled over a little and into Piper's hold all the more. Their barely covered bodies pressed tightly together, and Blue pressed her lips to Piper's bare chest, kissing the sloping mounds below her collarbone. The sharpness of it made it ripe for little bites after kisses, and Piper gasped a little as Blue encroached into her little sensual bubble. Between them, a wash of gorgeous feeling sparked between them and the temperature rose all the more near the crackling fire.

"I was just thinking… Anyone else in my situation would want the life they had without the bombs falling and the war… But…" Blue began, kissing Piper's chest some more to break up her testimonial.

Her lips made their way to Piper's bosom, kissing between her gorgeous breasts, and then around her areolas, making the reporter shiver with a beauteous response. Blue's kisses were delightful, light in their texture and surprisingly a little colder than Piper's own body heat. To her lover's touch, the Diamond City reporter was naturally submissive to Blue's lusty kisses such as these, and their placements made her reel and gasp audibly until her hands found her lover's shoulders. Piper slithered down to meet her lips and their faces engaged in lovely exchanges of their lips. Amorous and red cherry came to Piper's taste, and for Blue, she could make out hubflower and some slight tang. Piper had been gulping down Gum Drops just to make her lips have the crackling taste sensation from them. She did it when she wanted Blue to have pleasure, and for them to get closer and closer.

"But what? What're you saying?" Piper asked, her pupils dilated and her eyes wide. Her hair was already a slight mess from their more heated exchange when Blue had returned, and the sole survivor of Vault 111 was much the same. Her fades lip balm was smudged and her hair was a lot messier than Piper's, after having the report's fingers coursing through the gorgeous locks.

Blue chuckled a little, and placed her hands on Piper's chest, just above her bust, feeling a tense heartbeat and built up energies swirling both inside Piper, and between the pair of them.

"What I'm saying is… I don't ever wish that the bombs didn't fall, Piper. I'm actually fine with my life exactly as it played out. I don't hate this world, the Commonwealth. I think I prefer it now…"

"But, it's all destroyed. And you're the only person alive that remembers how it looked before the bombs fell. How can you prefer it like this, Blue?" Piper returned, very surprised by her girlfriend's proclamation. How could anyone prefer a world where radiation was more abundant than food or clean water?

Without saying anything else, Blue pushed herself forward and into Piper's area a little forcefully, placing her lips over Piper's and kissing so intensely and passionately, fireworks exploded between them. Piper was a little overwhelmed as Blue kissed her, but soon enough her hands moved from shoulders back to hair, one coming to Blue's chest and groping at gorgeous mounds. Messy hair became messier and Blue was even tearing up Piper's bob of wavy black. They kissed, made out, snogged for minutes, gripping and touching at each other lovingly and lustily, Piper could not get enough of her lover's body. Blue loved Piper's all the more, sliding hands down the curve of her girlfriend's spine to feel and massage her rear as they kissed a little longer.

Finally, when Blue was done, she smiled and bounced her nose against Piper's. "I prefer the life I live with you, Piper. And I don't ever want to wake up without you waking up with me. Get me?"

Piper giggled. "I think I can get with that." She kissed Blue back a little, lingering to taste the cherry.

* * *

Once they were done, Piper instructed her girlfriend to dress, in something other than the combat orientated vault jumpsuit and something more comfortable. Instead of her road leathers, Piper slagged into a hewn sweater that Mama Murphy had been knitting for all the residents over the winter. There was barely anything of the thing but it was comfy and warm enough. She left her mauve jacket and her reporter's cap on the terrible sofa they had in their domicile and by the time Piper was ready, Blue was too.

"Wanna tell me where we're going? I didn't think Sanctuary had a nightlife." Blue teased, smiling and wrapping her hair up in a small ponytail for comfort.

Another stout giggle left Piper.

"Well, it took all week, and I burned the tips of my fingers more than I'd like to admit, but I think I finally did something about that…"

She leered near the door and heard the churning of servos and a relative silence with nothing else, signalling that no one was around the cul-de-sac except for Automatrons, just what Piper needed and wanted. She'd had the sofa moved from Preston's by him and with added help from two of the Automatons. The Protectron models were fairly useless and only the Assaultron models could effectively help with a lot of the tasks. Sanctuary now had a sizeable robotic population after Blue's run-in with The Mechanist, but the settlers needed and welcome the mechanised help.

"Time for your night on the town, Blue." Piper winked, opening the door to a clear and wonderful cul-de-sac, strawn all around with strings of lights that made the generators work overtime.

The place looked completely different - the streets were swept clean of rubble, the trees had been shaped up to look presentable, the grass was even looking healthier and there, buy the large hub tree was the glorious red sofa, overlooking an orchestra of firework launchers. The robotic citizens of Sanctuary stood ready and ADA approached the door with a tray of two Nuka-Colas at the ready for the girls.

"Two fresh sodas for the lovely ladies…" ADA chimed very mechanically and a little drawn out. She sounded as if she was getting old if a robot could. Danse had helped her exchange the Assaultron claw with an attachment for the tray. Sturges was working on actual moving and working hand attachments for any of the Automatrons who wanted them.

Blue was shocked, utterly stunned, and her jaw was slack and her mouth opened wide at the sight of the grand tree awash in gorgeous neon with an assembly of robots waiting to set up the fireworks.

"Piper…"

She was utterly overwhelmed.

"How long did this take?" Blue asked, walking to take her girlfriend's hand and out of the rickety doorway.

"Oh, only a few weeks to get it all in order and build all of the displays. Not to mention all the favours I had to call in and make with the rest of the settlement. But it's worth it… Trust me." She reassured Blue, kissing her cheek again. Taking the two soda bottles still fizzy with the radioactive cola she passed one to her date. "Now, I know it's nothing stronger, but I know Nuka Cherry is your favourite. I couldn't find any Quantum."

"And how much did these alone cost?" Blue asked, referring to the sodas before she drank. Piper was already sipping from her normal brand of Nuka-Cola.

She smiled suavely. "Sixteen caps a piece after I threatened to ruin Carla with your shotgun."

Blue nearly spat out the sip she was taking.

"I'm kidding! I swapped some Gum Drops for them, and I found a whole crate of them near The Fens. Relax, okay? I wanted to do this."

She snaked her arm around Blue's waist and held her as close as the older woman would allow her, as she guided her to the sofa. Tension seeped out of Blue's body as she felt comfortable from the arm atop her rump. She saw the want in Piper and all she'd done, and it made the woman want to cry. Nothing like this had ever been done. The place looked even better than it had done two-hundred years ago, and it was the most pleasant sight that Blue had seen since coming out of the ice like a television dinner.

"You amaze me, you know that?" Blue complimented Piper, cuddling up to her after a large gulp of the soda, kissing at Piper's jawline and purring slightly.

"I know… I'm amazing. It has been said. Now, what'd'ya say we enjoy our night out around Sanctuary?"

A flirty giggle left Blue. "Sounds like a date. My first one in over two-hundred years y'know."

Piper kisses Blue wholeheartedly on her now fizzy lips. The cherry was sublime. "Maybe after this, I can take you dinner. Like a proper broad."

"Consider me falling… Catch me?"

The Diamond City reporter held her lover closely, right before the sofa, with the clear skies and the bright galaxy of stars overlooking them as they laughed and kissed. Even in a wasteland like the Commonwealth, Blue still had love.


End file.
